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Annabelle Lepièce

Annabelle Lepièce

Annabelle Lepièce is specialized in European law, with a focus on competition law (antitrust, State aid, merger control). She also has a broad experience in the EU freedoms (services, goods, establishment).Her legal practice includes drafting and submitting notifications of public interventions, individual aids or aids schemes to the European Commission (rescue and restructuring aid, RDI aid, investment aid, etc.) and representing the public authorities in European investigations on illegal aids. She advises public entities on the qualification of a measure as state aid, its potential compatibility with EU rules and the setting up of aid schemes, including measures co-financed with European structural funds (RDI aid, de minimis aid, public guarantees, rescue and restructuring aid scheme).She files merger notifications, lodges complaints for abuses of dominant position and represents undertakings in investigations on cartels before national and European Competition authorities.

She also advices public authorities on compliance of their actions to the relevant European law, for instance on the implementation of European directives.

She represents undertakings in litigations with the European Commission regarding European subsidies.

She has an extensive experience in EU litigation, representing both public authorities and private undertakings before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

She has a recognized expertise in air transport and the airport sector (financing of airport activities and infrastructure, contracts with airlines, groundhandling, airport charges, etc.), the banking sector, the steel manufacturing industry, energy and public investments (capital injections, guarantees, loans). In the aviation sector, she has represented the Belgian authorities in the investigation of the European Commission on the financing of the Charleroi Airport and Ryanair airport since 2002. She has assisted French, Dutch, Romanian and Spanish regional authorities and airports in European Commission investigations and advises them daily on the compliance of their funding and their contracts with airlines to European law and more particularly to State aid rules. She is also consulted by airlines on the public investments they may benefit from their public shareholders.Annabelle is a recommended lawyer in the 2018 edition of the 100 Global Competition Review as well as in the Chambers 2017 and 2017 editions in Competition and State aid and in the 2017 edition of the Legal 500 EMEA.She lectures on State aid at the Université Paris I - Panthéon- Sorbonne [Panthéon-Sorbonne University], at the Ecole d’Administration publique commune à la Communauté française et à la Région wallone [Common Public School of Administration to the French Community and the Wallonia region],at the Ecole Nationale d’Aviation Civile [National School of Civil Aviation] and at the Assembly of European Regions, at Connect, etc.

She is regularly invited to hearings by the Committee of the Regions as an expert in State aid. Thus, on 19 September 2016, she participated, as a legal practitioner, in a presentation of the Communication of the European Commission on the notion of State aid to the members of the Committee of the Regions, along with representatives of the European Commission.She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Revue du droit des Industries de réseau [Network Industries Law Review] (“RDIR”), of the “Competition Women’s Network” and the Belgian Competition Law Association.

“She has great expertise regarding the national competition authorities in Belgium and is accurate in foreseeing how the authorities will react.”

Feedback from a client, Chambers Europe 2018

“Annabelle Lepièce has notable experience in aviation matters, continuing to represent the SOWAER and the Walloon Authorities in relation to recent developments in the Commission's investigation into alleged state aid granted by Charleroi Airport to Ryanair.”

Chambers Europe 2018

“CMS advises airports and airlines on a range of state aid and competition law issues. Recent work includes advising Montpellier Airport on the European Commission’s investigation into alleged aid granted to Ryanair. Swissport is another key client, for which the team has been handling litigation concerning the granting of licences to provide ground handling services, along with a stream of corporate and commercial issues. The ‘proactive and creative’ Annabelle Lepièce leads the team, which includes experienced associate Hanne Baeyens.”

Legal 500 EMEA 2018

“CMS’ merger with Olswang boosted its competition practice through the arrival of Dirk Van Liedekerke, whose experience covers an expansive range of merger clearance, investigations, compliance issues and litigation. Annabelle Lepièce is also a key contact and has ‘a practical and pragmatic approach’. Recent work includes advising AMP, as a subsidiary of Lagardère Travel Retail, on its acquisition by bpost.”

Legal 500 EMEA 2018

“She has great expertise regarding the national competition authorities in Belgium and is accurate in foreseeing how the authorities will react.”

Feedback from a client, Chambers Europe 2018

“Annabelle Lepièce has notable experience in aviation matters, continuing to represent the SOWAER and the Walloon Authorities in relation to recent developments in the Commission's investigation into alleged state aid granted by Charleroi Airport to Ryanair.”

Chambers Europe 2018

“CMS advises airports and airlines on a range of state aid and competition law issues. Recent work includes advising Montpellier Airport on the European Commission’s investigation into alleged aid granted to Ryanair. Swissport is another key client, for which the team has been handling litigation concerning the granting of licences to provide ground handling services, along with a stream of corporate and commercial issues. The ‘proactive and creative’ Annabelle Lepièce leads the team, which includes experienced associate Hanne Baeyens.”

Legal 500 EMEA 2018

“CMS’ merger with Olswang boosted its competition practice through the arrival of Dirk Van Liedekerke, whose experience covers an expansive range of merger clearance, investigations, compliance issues and litigation. Annabelle Lepièce is also a key contact and has ‘a practical and pragmatic approach’. Recent work includes advising AMP, as a subsidiary of Lagardère Travel Retail, on its acquisition by bpost.”

Acting on behalf of state entities in investigations of the European Commission on illegal aid, and before the Court of Justice of the EU (aviation sector, financing of hospitals, glass sector, steel manufacturing sector);

Acting on behalf of companies within the context of antitrust investigations carried out by the Belgian Competition Authority (BSE testing, distribution sector, etc.);

Merger notifications to the European Commission and to the Belgian Competition Authority (steel sector, bank, airport, etc.);

Drafting and filing anti-trust complaints to the European Commission and to the Belgian Competition Authority (advertising, energy, postal service, copyright, etc.).

Lectures list

Since 2011, Annabelle Lepièce has been giving yearly a seminar on state aid in the aviation transport sector at the national school of civil aviation (ENAC – Toulouse) as part of the Masters degree programme in airport management and the management of aviation transport. She also gives this seminar at the University of Panthéon – Sorbonne, Paris, as part of Master II – International Transport.

Annabelle is often consulted for her expertise in European law and is a speaker at numerous conferences that will be included hereafter.

« The notion of State aid: a practitioner’s point-of-view », presentation for the “Lunchtime briefing - Notice on the Notion of State aid: implications for investments at regional and local level”, Committee of the Regions (programme: http://cor.europa.eu/en/events/Pages/notion- stateaid.aspx ), 19 September 2016 ;

« State Aid and Airports session », Competition Law Challenges in the Transport Sector conference, London, January 2016 ;

« New EU Aviation Guidelines: their impact on airports and airlines », Connect, Kilkenny, from 3 to 5 June 2015 ;

« Les aides d’Etat dans le secteur du transport aérien », Round Table organised by the German Aviation Research Society, in association with the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne as part of the Master 2 in International Transport, on 5 February 2013 ;

« Le financement public des infrastructures aéroportuaires : une approche pratique pour les gestionnaires d’aéroports et leurs actionnaires publics », Conference organised in October 2010 as part of the Belgian presidency of the EU in relation to sustainable development in the aviation sector in Wallonia ;

Feed

It was a blue Monday for a hand full of Bel­gian re­tail­ers on 20 May 2019 when the Bel­gian com­pet­i­tion au­thor­ity (BCA) con­duc­ted dawn raids on un­der­tak­ings act­ive in the re­tail dis­tri­bu­tion sec­tor, which – ac­cord­ing to the newpa­per de Tijd – in­cluded Car­re­four.

European Com­mis­sion pub­lishes re­port on com­pet­i­tion policy for the...

In­vest­ig­a­tions of ma­jor tech com­pan­ies have fuelled the de­bate re­gard­ing the fit­ness of com­pet­i­tion rules to ad­dress ques­tions about the di­git­al eco­nomy. On 4 April 2019, a spe­cial re­port on com­pet­i­tion policy, com­mis­sioned by EU an­ti­trust chief Mar­grethe Vestager,.

On 19 March 2019, the European Com­mis­sion an­nounced the launch of its new on­line tool to sub­mit state­ments and doc­u­ments in le­ni­ency and set­tle­ment pro­ceed­ings in car­tel and non-car­tel co­oper­a­tion cases.

Mer­gers to be con­trolled in both Brus­sels and Lon­don in case of no-deal...

In a UK par­lia­ment­ary vote on March 14, MPs voted to ask the EU for a delay to Brexit and re­jec­ted the idea of leav­ing the EU without a deal un­der any cir­cum­stances. However, the EU is not ob­liged to say yes and the de­fault po­s­i­tion in law at the mo­ment re­mains.